For the foreign officials gathered at President Bush's two-day climate summit meeting this week, there's a cruel reality - no matter whether they opt for the voluntary, go-slow American path to emissions cutbacks or the more muscular United Nations approach, there's no way to stop catastrophic global warming if China doesn't also go green.

Without fast, concerted action to help China clean up its emissions-spewing economy - using lessons already learned by Bay Area scientists and regulators - the world's fight against climate change may be doomed to defeat.

According to several international studies released in recent months, China is in the process of overtaking the United States as the world's No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions. But a closer look at the numbers shows even more startling news - China's emissions growth will soon outstrip that of the entire industrialized world combined. Even if China meets its own targets for energy-efficiency improvements, its greenhouse gas emissions will increase by about 2.5 billion metric tons over the next five years, an amount far larger than the 1.05 billion tons in reductions imposed by the Kyoto Protocol on wealthy nations and on the United States, which has since withdrawn from the treaty. ...   more »